


quand tu souris

by exolliarmus



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-26 21:59:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12067791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exolliarmus/pseuds/exolliarmus
Summary: When Chanyeol's quasi-enemy (because who has actualenemies in high school?), Jongdae, comes back from his exchange in Japan he starts popping up everywhere. Chanyeol's attempts to avoid the chaser-cum-seeker are less fruitful than he'd otherwise hope.





	quand tu souris

**Author's Note:**

> Title: quand tu souris  
> Pairing: Chen/Chanyeol  
> Summary: When Chanyeol's quasi-enemy (because who has actualenemies in high school?), Jongdae, comes back from his exchange in Japan he starts popping up everywhere. Chanyeol's attempts to avoid the chaser-cum-seeker are less fruitful than he'd otherwise hope.  
> Rating: PG13  
> Word Count: 17112  
> Author's Note: Hello all! This fic gave me many a sleepless night (to angst or to not angst?) but here it finally is! Shout out to my wonderful beta S for saving my ass at the last minute! There's some significant world building that went on for this one because I just couldn't stand the fact that no canon HPverse Korean magical school existed. I'm just going to attach some of my notes below. Thanks to the mods for helping this go smoothly and easily (including giving me extensions when I needed it). And thanks to both the person who prompted this and those who will read it! I really wish I could have written so much more but sometimes my writing just can't catch up to my brain.
> 
> Graded Occult Ridiculously Advanced Levels (G.O.R.A.Ls) = O.W.Ls  
> Continuance Regulatory Admission Necessary Examinations (C.R.A.N.Es) = N.E.W.Ts
> 
> Gyerong - Ravenclaw (Cockatrice) Girin - Hufflepuff (Horned Deer)  
> Ungnyeo - Gryffindoor (Bear) Gyeongeo - Slytherin (Sea Monster)
> 
> P.S. There's a spotify playlist for this fic (https://open.spotify.com/user/ghostsirens/playlist/7bVOeriHJLknXCFjjFrFUk) have a listen if you want to have a musical guide through the fic!

Sweat rolls down Chanyeol’s forehead. The thought that it’s only a few minutes until it’ll be mingling with water is the only thing that keeps his feet padding in front of each other. Waves crash against the shore not too far away, and the sound only roars louder with each step towards the disapparition point.  
  
“I’ve never been more happy to be a prefect.” There’s a curl to the voice. It makes Chanyeol turn his head, even if he doesn’t want to,  _knows_  he shouldn’t. The smile that greets him is another red flag, and there’s the quirk of the brow on top of that. “Guess I’ll be seeing you in there, big boy.”  
  
Heat fills Chanyeol’s cheeks, betraying the thump of his heart in his chest. “I get to go first Kim, I’m in the grade above you.” he spits back, hoisting his broomstick higher on his shoulder. Jongdae’s not in any position to be trying to get into a pissing contest with him right now, not when he’d most probably messed up any of their chances of getting into the house cup. “I can’t believe you fuckin’ missed the snitch, it was  _right_  in front of you!” he yells, more to the sky than Jongdae but he should have known better than to assume that the kid would have the brains to not bite back.  
  
He’s forced to stop when the seeker stomps in front of him, coming in from the right. “For starters  _Park_ ,” he bites out his name with more ferocity than Chanyeol’s used to -- maybe he does feel at least a little embarrassed at the loss for the team. “I’m not even a seeker! I was only on today because I had to cover for Seulgi. Just to follow up, we’re the same age, you ass, you were just too dumb to get into the exchange programme for Mahoutokoro.” Venom laces Jongdae’s words and his gaze cuts deep enough that it stings as they sink in.  
  
It takes Chanyeol a second to square his shoulders and another one to straighten out the words in his mind so they don’t come out in a tumbling rush. Softly, he lays a hand on his seeker’s shoulders. “I didn’t want to pull rank  _Kim_ ,” hardly seems unfair for him to fill his voice with the same kind of dislike Jongdae’s had held, “But I’m also the captain of this team. If you want to keep your place on the team as a chaser or reserve seeker then well…” he trails off, watching the anger slowly leave Jongdae’s face as he realises he’s not got much ground. For once, Chanyeol’s the one better positioned to win the argument -- he’s not sure if he likes the change.  
  
“Got it, captain. You’re being a dick about it, but I got it.” All the fight’s gone out of his eyes, but the relief slowing his heart is too much to allow Chanyeol to think about anything else. It’s just like Jongdae to try and fuck him about right after a game, when he’s at his weakest, especially with the mounting pressure of being captain of the underdog team in any House Cup hopes.  
  
Jongdae steps back, melting back into the rest of the team, trailing behind him with something grumbled about just wanting a shower. His stomach sinks low, the weight of the meal he’d wolfed down feeling about as heavy as it had just before he’d stepped out onto the pitch. Managing his impulsiveness had been the bargain he’d struck with Professor Shim when they’d had the discussion about him becoming the captain. There’d been promises made but of  _course_  Jongdae liked to come along and wreck all of those, it was just another way to make things difficult for Chanyeol.  
  
Problem is, Chanyeol doesn’t really know why it’s Jongdae who’s always able to snag him hook line, and sinker with his bait, but he can and  _fuck_  it’s annoying. Things had been so much better when he hadn’t had to deal with Jongdae, mostly the occasional third, maybe second, year out of bed after curfew. “Take me back to last year.” he breathes out, eyes slipping shut as he paces the well beaten path, kicking the occasional pebble out of the way but never straying from the track -- he knew it too well.  
  
By the time they do finally reach the small clearing of trees nestled at the crook of a slope from the beach to the mountain that students from the teams can apparate away from, Chanyeol’s never wanted to sink into a good bath with essential oils more. There’s still a pretty long walk ahead of him from the edge of the grounds to the prefect’s bathrooms but the thought that he’ll at least be on the same island as them is enough for some of the tension to unknot from Chanyeol’s shoulders. He’s postured enough that he knows Jongdae won’t try and race him to the bathroom, not today at least.  
  
He turns on the spot, rubbing his eyes as he waits for the rest of his team to catch up. Taehyung is the last to catch up but he flashes a warm smile that Chanyeol knows is an apology so he doesn’t snap like he wants to, “Alright, we all ready? Five people hold one of my fingers and someone else place their hand on my shoulder.” It’s a drill they’ve gone through about a bajillion times -- usual practice had been to just hold hands but they’d opted for the more centralised alternative after someone on the Gyerong team had splinched a few years back. They were just lucky Chanyeol had massive hands.  
  
While everyone arranges themselves, Chanyeol slips his wand from where it’s strapped close to his thigh, fussing around with his robes a moment for his efforts. “Rea-” his voice drops away when his eyes meet Jongdae’s on his way to survey that everyone had gotten into position.  
  
“What?! You said that someone had to hold your shoulder?” He’s pouting in a way that’s totally Jongdae. Chanyeol doesn’t know quite how to describe it other than saying that it makes his blood to something akin to boiling.  
  
“You don’t need to stand so close.” He points out, flicking his eyes between his chest and Jongdae’s, noting the ridiculously small distance.  
  
Jongdae pouts even  _more_  and it takes all Chanyeol has to just breathe deep and think about the howler he’d get from his father if he let his mouth say all the things he wanted to say. “I don’t want to get splinched.” is Jongdae’s pouty reply and honestly Chanyeol’s never wanted someone to splinch so badly in his entire life (except not at all because he’s pretty sure Jongdae would whine even more if that happened).  
  
Replying seems like it’s dignifying Jongdae’s ribbing with too much, so instead Chanyeol casts a glance over to the rest of the team, cataloguing their positions before shutting his eyes and allowing the blackness to shift into green. Light filters in through the green, giving it the definition it needs to become leaves, vines while some of it washes away to become the rich brown of the trunks arching up out of the ground. The crashing of the beach waves fades to a soft lapping of water at the edge of the pond the clearing faces and he can even hear a slice of bird song. “Hold on.”  
  
Every single grip on his fingers draws tight and his jersey pulls tight as the hand on his shoulder grips harder than it needs to. Breathing deep, Chanyeol takes a step into the abyss, stopping when his chest bumps another and his feet meet the dirt. “No splinching?” he asks, eyes fluttering open against the sunlight filtering through the leaves, it’s a shock from the fog he’d gotten used to close to the quidditch pitch.  
  
A chorus of “No captain!” meets his ears which is no surprise but the soft smile on Jongdae’s face is. He’s probably scheming his interruption of the bath Chanyeol was definitely having first.  
  
“I get first go Kim, don’t think about pulling any of that same age shit. I’m senior and you know it.” Chanyeol warns, preempting any snarky comment he was likely to get. The smile fades rather quickly and he’s rewarded with a huff of indignation for his efforts.  
  
Normally, he’d stick around for whatever Jongdae had to say, maybe fire back a few shots of his own but by God he’d dealt with enough today, he really didn’t want to have to explain to Jongdae the different ways he could kick his ass. No, what Chanyeol wanted was his bath with those fancy taps turned on and maybe, if he was feeling super indulgent, the gramophone playing his favourite Ghibli OSTs.  
  
None of these plans involve Jongdae 0 hence he’s being totally reasonable when he gives his team a quick nod before striding away, cutting through the trees so he can relieve his bruised shins sooner rather than later (Taehyung and Youngji really needed to be their jobs better with the bludgers). He pretends to ignore the sing song “Bathe well Yeol-ah!” that comes ringing through the trees, dripping with the sarcasm of someone who’s definitely plotting something.

  
  
-

 

A branch snags in Chanyeol’s hair and he remembers the thousand and one times he’s asked the groundskeepers to trim the trees a little higher. He wants to be surprised at the fact that they didn’t listen him but, considering the amount of times he’s seen kids desperately casting  _Lumos_  to get out of the Devil’s Snare by the side of the apparition point for the astronomy fields on Ueumdo...well, it isn’t breaking news that they don’t seem to care. Flicking a cherry blossom out of his hair, Chanyeol watches the bud hit the ground before he turns to where Baekhyun should be arriving soon.  
  
Sure enough, with a fizz and a snap, Baekhyun appears, his robes whistling with a wind he’s pretty sure belongs back at Hansando. “Late start again Baek?” he asks, eyes flicking to the toast his friend is biting - if he could be bothered checking, it’d probably still be warm, if not a little cooled by the fresh raspberry jam smeared across it. There’s a fleck on Baekhyun’s cheek that he catches with a smile before licking it off his finger.  
  
Pleased, Baekhyun is not, as he snatches the toast of his mouth, kicking Chanyeol’s shins as they start off along the path that carves through the thicket. “It’s your goddamn fault for keeping me up so late last night Chanyeol.” he complains. It’s louder than Chanyeol’s sure it needs to be and for about the fifty millionth time he’s glad that there’s all the charms on these paths to protect them from muggle discovery.  
  
He tilts his head, if only to avoid the scratching branches. “We’re not in the same house Baekhyun. You were the one who fire called me.” Chanyeol points out. He’s not going to let Baekhyun pin this on him without a fight.  
  
“YEAH I WAS! Had to tell the fifth years that I worried about them getting cold so they’d let me light one that close to their revision papers. Now everyone’s going to go on about how I’m not a real Gyeongeo again! I was being cunning and this is what I get.” Somewhere along the way Baekhyun’s rambling turns from him complaining about Chanyeol’s keeping him up to the apparent issue of near the entirety of Yojeongseong thinking Baekhyun didn’t have a cunning bone in his body. Personally, Chanyeol thinks his best friend in a nice mix of both but he wouldn’t say so since Baek also had a nice streak of pride running alongside the kindness and scheming.  
  
Angry munching signals that Baekhyun’s taking out his frustration on his toast and Chanyeol takes it as his cue to protest against what exactly Baekhyun had called him to say. “You know I was telling the truth when I said nothin’ was bothering me yesterday, right?” he signals to the right before he turns down the forked path, knowing his friend would have wandered the other way what with how engrossed he was in his toast. “I mean, I got this extra work from Professor Ko to prep me for the Muggle Studies C.R.A.N.E. but that’s just like another thing on top of the work Professors Kang and Yeo already gave me for Charms and History of Magic.” He’s deflecting, there totally was something bothering him last night when Baekhyun had practically burst through the Girin fireplace, but it’s easier for both he and Baekhyun if he pretends otherwise.  
  
For a moment after his big spiel (that sounds kind of like a mental list of all the things he needs to get done tonight, and is exactly that) they walk in relative silence, the only real sound the crunching of the gravel beneath their feet. Baekhyun ruins the peace with the loud slurping of his fingers. When Chanyeol shoots him him a  _look_  all he gets is, “It’s either this or I get raspberry jam all over the Juji.” It’s a compelling argument and Chanyeol doesn’t really feel like having to deal with the tiny bites he’d get if they wound up having to chase them back into the pen.  
  
“I just wish they could bite your fingers off instead, if you really want me to be totally honest.” he teases, unable to hold back his spluttering laughter at the scandalised face that Baekhyun seamlessly shifts into, a speck of raspberry jam oddly high on his cheek. Despite the prospects of amusing himself even more if he swiped it away, Chanyeol doesn’t lest Baekhyun kill him where he stands. “You got a little ah-” He breaks off, deciding to just gesture to his own face until Baekhyun got it.  
  
He gets it and soon he’s looking slightly less ridiculous in his anger. “If you’re not careful, I’ll wipe this jam all over your neck and they’ll be biting your neck. It’ll look kinda like hickies since they can’t bite through human skin for shit. The whole school’ll be buzzing about Lover Boy Park.” it’s not an empty threat, and certainly sounds like something Baekhyun could pull off.  
  
Dignifying the threat with a direct response is exactly what Baekhyun wants, “Whatever, you know they wouldn’t be able to reach my neck.” he points out, gesturing vaguely between them and the obvious height difference.  
  
It touches a nerve, clearly, with the way Baekhyun leans in, smile sickly sweet. “Yeol-ah, they can fly remember? That whole them having wings thing really helps. Or did you forget to read pages 203 to 249?” Something lead makes its home in the pit of his stomach right before it begins twisting itself into knots.  
  
“Shit.”  
  
“You didn’t read it did you?” Baekhyun is  _way_  too pleased for Chanyeol’s comfort but he’s freaking out too much about Professor Yoon skinning him alive and possibly throwing him to the samjokgu to say anything. His nod is slow and deliberate, even if he wanted to speak the lump in his throat is too big to let any words past anyway. “Hah! I knew it! There’s something on your mind that ain’t school. You never miss readings!” Chanyeol grimaces but Baekhyun’s not wrong and like a true Gyeongeo he’d know if he was lying. “If you tell me what’s up, I’ll fill you in on the the chapters in the uh, 200 metres between us and the pens.”  
  
Chanyeol doesn’t know if there’s ever been a more appropriate situation to say that Baekhyun’s got him by the balls. “Jongdae.” He starts but that’s all it takes before Baekhyun’s breathing out all dramatic, more forcefully than Chanyeol thinks is entirely necessary but he can’t blame him -- his friend probably thought he’d been freed from all this when Jongdae had gone off to Mahoutokoro.  
  
Afraid of the very real possibility of Baekhyun swinging out to slap him on the arm (or perhaps with something worse), Chanyeol takes a few steps back, only stopping when his back hits one of the trees that lines the path. “Needs to stop taking up so much of your mental energy!” is all Baekhyun delivers in his anger and momentarily, Chanyeol is feeling relieved. “You’ve got so better stuff to be doing than stressing out over a  _fifth_  grader!”  
  
That’s what Chanyeol has to stop him, “I mean, technically he’s the same age as us but he had to go over to Japa-” He falls silent with the glare that Baekhyun is shooting him. They’re both right but considering Baekhyun’s already annoyed Chanyeol decides to not push things. “You’re right he didn’t have to go over there and now he’s stuck in fifth year, he can’t boss me around.” He punctuates the sentence with a forthright nod and Baekhyun is stepping away from him.  
  
“I only get mad because I worry about you man. That guy gets to you too much and with the way he picks at ya then you’re bound to lose your cool with him eventually.” While it seems pertinent to explain that he’s already lost his cool with Jongdae in a way that may or may not have resulted in a threat, Chanyeol refrains from speaking. “I’m gonna ignore the way that your face is totally giving away that that’s already happened.” Bless Baekhyun’s soul.  
  
Huffing, Chanyeol pushes away from the tree, wrapping an arm around Baekhyun’s shoulders as he goes. “So, about that explanation of the pages? Or were you just lying?” He doesn’t like the smile that splits Baekhyun’s face.  
  
“I haven’t read them either. Hopefully Professor Yoon is feeling charitable today!” Chanyeol’s not able to snatch his robe before Baekhyun’s running back along the path. Half of him (which included both his knees) didn’t want to run after him, not with how hard he’d have to run to catch up to Baekhyun’s lithe strides but on the other hand, he’d just tricked him.  
  
The gravel flies up behind him as he runs after Baekhyun, one hand outstretched to catch his robe once he came close enough, the other pumping at his side like he was doing a Quidditch warm up. “If Prof Yoon doesn’t kill you then it’s gonna be me!” he bellows but it melts into laughter as they fly past a pair of Gyeongeo students and a bedraggled looking Girin.  
  
Eventually they're forced to draw to a stop as they approach the pen for all the magical creatures. In the distance Chanyeol can hear the roar of a Haetae from the pens that are behind the first crop of trees on the horizon -- or at least he hopes that it's a Haetae, he doesn't want to think about what it would be otherwise. Shaking his leg, Chanyeol feels a few pebbles fall from where they'd found a home in his pant leg and he feels inclined to blame Baekhyun but also thinks that would be counterproductive. To what exactly, he doesn't know, but he's constantly suspicious of his friend's plans. Revenge could practically replace Byun as his last name.  
  
Once Chanyeol's finally able to pull his robes in order and straighten his badge, Professor Yoon is calling for the class to gather round. He'd say it was unnecessary since well, they're all sixth graders but there's a select few from both houses who do make the first grader treatment appropriate. He's not going to name names but he does know a few of them and it sometimes makes him question his friendship with them. “At least Jongdae's not here” is definitely something he wants to say, but he holds back lest Baekhyun land some good punches over it. Breathing deep, Chanyeol reminds himself to focus on the class at hand and not the people that definitely weren't here. Jongdae doesn't matter right now -- really he never technically matters except for when they're on the Quidditch pitch.  
  
Juji - that's what they’re working on today, nothing else besides those weird little bird monsters matters right now. "Did you just call them monsters!" A high pitched voice rings out through the clearing and Chanyeol's sure that it's one of the people they ran past on their way here. Clearly they're still sore about being left in the dust -- and a mind-reader. Kinda creepy if not pretty cool. The girl leans forward and despite his status of a sixth year prefect, Chanyeol is pretty sure he's got absolutely no clue who the hell she is. "If you promise to not kick dirt into my face as you run past next time for class, I promise to not tell Professor Yoon that you're thinkin' bad about her beasts." A quick glance down and Chanyeol swallows - there's the Gyeongeo crest on her chest, she's not fucking about. Gyeongeo kids never do.  
  
Narrowing his eyes to meet her glare, Chanyeol resists the urge to bend down, maybe lord his height over her a little bit before laughing. "'Course not miss, sorry for doin' that. Won't happen again, just some fun with a friend." He gestures over his shoulder casually because if he's going to be in the mud then he's got no qualms about pulling Baekhyun in with him. Also because they're in the same house, it's more likely that Baekhyun would bear the brunt of the displeasure once they got back to the house rooms. "Now we best pay attention 'cause I'm pretty sure Prof Yoon wouldn't be too pleased if either of us were to be not listenin', she's kinda like that ain't she?" he plasters the brightest smile he can on to his lips and it seems to do the trick. A soft pink tints the girl's cheeks and she's leaning back, swinging back to fit into her own friendship group, clearly ready to start the lesson now that her tad bit of trouble stirring was over. Chanyeol thanks whomever is looking down on them for his good looks before returning to Baekhyun's side.  
  
Nudging him in the side, he smirks as he jerks his head over to the side towards the girl and her fellow Gyeongeo gaggle. "Have fun later on eh? Lemme know how it goes Mister Dirt Kicker." He can tell that Baekhyun wants to bite something out in reply but he's cut off by Professor Yoon calling for attention proper this time. Chanyeol pulls his book out of his book bag, since despite his inability to read the text, he's able to be prepared in other ways. Catching a pleading look out of the corner of his eye, he tears off a piece for Baekhyun, not bothering with the usual  _you owe me_  look since it seems Baekhyun never pays attention to that sort of stuff anyway.  
  
About half way through the lesson after some quick-fire questioning of the class, Professor Yoon clearly trusts them enough to let them into the Juji pens. Chanyeol's not having a great time but at least it means he's free to talk to Baekhyun. "So, how often are you thinking about Jongdae, is it like an even-when-you-sleep kinda deal or?" Talking to his best friend is something he wants to view as a freedom but slowly, Chanyeol's beginning to see it as more of a curse. Especially when those sorts of questions are distracting him from making sure the Juji don't nip at his chest and steal his prefect's badge.  
  
Forgoing the usual closing of his eyes, Chanyeol relies on the breathing routine he'd practiced with Professor Shim last year and smiles gently at Baekhyun. "Mostly just when he's in front of me Baekhyun, nothin' more to it than that." he warns, though what he'd do if Baekhyun pushed it any further he wasn't entirely sure. In all likelihood neither of them would enjoy it.  
  
A blissful moment occurs when Chanyeol thinks that he's definitely off the hook but Baekhyun's right back in there again with a helpful. "Really because I heard tell that you were sayin' his name when you were in the shower the other day, was that like...I mean I don't wanna intrude in on your private life here man but was that you jackin' off?" Yep, those breathing exercises, he doesn't need 'em for Jongdae, he needs 'em for Baekhyun.  
  
Slowly he levels his gaze with Baekhyun, actually bending down this time because fuck it, he can and he's going to do it. "I don't jack off." He's cut off by Baekhyun's bellow. "You didn't let me finish! I don't jack off thinking about my teammates. He's cute sure but I ain't going there and you know that Baekhyun, I've been saying the same thing since I learnt what jackin' off was." There's nothing in there that his friend can argue with, other than the fact that he hadn't actually explained why he was saying Jongdae's name in the shower stalls but he's going to avoid explaining that if he can.  
  
Apparently, he can't because Baekhyun's leaning in, shovel under elbow and a very crude smile on his face. "Ah so what's the reason that you're sayin' his name in the shower then? Or are you just livin' in a world where you guys ain't on the same team for Quidditch?" Smugness colours his features and Chanyeol wants to snap a sincere  _no_  out but a Juji nips his ear and he's too busy batting it off to bother with anything else.  
  
Squeezing his eyes shut, black colours his vision until there's other patterns spiralling there too. "Ouch." he breathes out, taking a moment to just not freak out and hope that the bite 1) isn't venomous and 2) isn't bleeding. He ignores the fact that he’d know  _if_  he’d done the readings. "Also, no, if you gotta know I was thinking about a game plan, he wasn't on the team at Mahoutokoro and it shows. We gotta polish his skills up or I'm gonna have to start holding tryouts for new Chasers." It hurts to say because Chanyeol doesn't want to kick anyone off his team but his premier job is getting the house cup for Girin, and he has to do what he has to do for that to happen.  
  
Disappointment flashes in the smile Baekhyun shifts to but Chanyeol doesn't bite, instead catches the Juji flitting around his head, being careful to not squash the wings as he turns it over to check for tags. Professor Yoon said she'd only tagged a few and their job was to get the ones that hadn't been tagged and check the ones that had been. It hadn't sounded so difficult fifteen minutes ago but it has become considerably harder once Baekhyun had decided this was Question Park Chanyeol Time. Not a tag in sight. "Here you go." Baekhyun cuts in before Chanyeol has a chance to open his mouth to ask for one, when he looks over to take it, there's a knowing smile on his friends face and ease seeps into Chanyeol's shoulders.  
  
"If he's bothering you so much man, it's probably a good idea to try some techniques to y'know, not think about him. I know you and Shim worked on shit to help you keep your cool before you were given the prefect's badge." Something in Chanyeol's chest squeezes but he writes it off as him being touched that Baekhyun had taken the effort to notice. "'Course I noticed man, I'm your best friend. And relax, you know I ain't a legilimens like Heeyeon, I feel like I would have told you earlier in the friendship if I was." Which is true, if he hadn't noticed Baekhyun would have told him.  
  
Tying the tag around the weirdly human looking leg of the Juji, Chanyeol thinks for a second about the idea. It's not bad, he's definitely got to give Baekhyun the credit on that. Distracting himself from the stress of an upcoming assignment or something had to work along the same principle of pretending that Jongdae doesn't exist except for when he's standing right in front of him. "Okay, so, say that I take your idea and run with it. What am I meant to do instead? Dude's pretty all consuming and don't say something! You know how annoying he was in fourth year!" he warns, pointing a finger square in the middle of Baekhyun's face as if it would help him remember C.R.A.N.E.s any better -- maybe it would, he doesn't know.  
  
A pregnant pause stretches out between them and Chanyeol flicks his wand to etch he and Baekhyun's initials on the tag before placing his Juji aggressor back on the ground. It runs off back to join the herd that was oddly surrounding Jiho and co. Chanyeol's not complaining, the less Juji around him, the less work he had to do and the less likely it was that Professor Yoon found out that he wasn't across the reading. "Well!" He almost starts at Baekhyun's outburst. "You're busy all the time right? It's been so hard to hang out with you this year that I transferred to a class I don't even wanna do to hang out with you!" It's a fair assessment but Chanyeol doesn't see Baekhyun's point. He's busy as it is now and it's still not stopping him from thinking about Jongdae.  
  
"If you just think about the next assignment or reading that you gotta do for a class then you don't have to think about Jongdae! He'll only come up when you've gotta think about Quidditch and you're a pro at that so it's not like you've gotta think about it  _all_  the time! It's perfect."  
  
He's got a point. "You've got a point."  
  
Baekhyun perks up, pushing his shovel down with a foot in a way that somehow manages to be cocky despite the circumstances. "I know I do Park, I've always got a point." He probably does and it just takes a very...unique mind to see how things link together.  
  
The thought that there might be an answer to all of this mess eases some of the stress filling Chanyeol's shoulders and he begins mulling over the likelihood of the plan working. "Okay yeah but I got that free period, I know I took it off so that I'd have time to relax but honestly my mind just wanders to Jongdae and I get annoyed at him instead of working." he explains, mentally umming and ahhing about the feasibility of Baekhyun's plan.  
  
Clearly, Baekhyun sees the point he's trying to get across and nods, shuffling the shovel around the in the dirt as he thinks over his words. "Okay so just pick up an extra thing to do during that time." Which is easier said than done, but apparently Baekhyun knows this because he's shooting Chanyeol a look that says  _I'm thinking_.  
  
He thinks for a few second more but apparently the answer leaps out to him and Chanyeol has to deal with another gasp of realisation. "I saw that uh, the herbology professor talkin' about something? Tutoring for the students doing their G.O.R.A.L.s this year? Something like intensive tutoring or something before the exams in May. Seemed pretty cool and I think it was available on the line that you've got off." It sounds like a pretty good idea that's for sure, and Jongdae's good enough in all of his subjects that Chanyeol's pretty sure he wouldn't be in the program. Hell, Jongdae wouldn't be in there just because his pride's too damn big. "Plus it'll look good if you're going to hope for Head Boy next year. I heard Junmyeon- _sunbae_  did it when he was in sixth year."  
  
Chanyeol thinks about it for about a second longer before nodding. It's a good idea for more reasons that just getting Jongdae off his mind. "Boys! How's the tagging and/or scanning coming along?" Professor Yoon's voice is definitely filled with...well something that Chanyeol is pretty sure means I'm On To The Fact That You're Not Actually Doing Work.  
  
Baekhyun's still too pleased with the fact that he's managed to convince Chanyeol to agree to something he's suggested to notice they're being called upon. "It's going well Professor! Just trying to see if any of them have buried any charms! Like mentioned on page 250!" Mentioning the extra tid-bit clearly earns him a few brownie points.  
  
"You read beyond the listed pages Mr Park? Impressive, good to see the house prefect being a good example for his peers." He doesn't have the heart, nor the courage, to tell her that the real reason he knows that was because he'd overheard Amber talking about it as she'd started working with her Girin partner.  
  
"Thank you professor, I try!" he says instead, nodding as she turns her back, most likely to see what the commotion going on near Jiho is and whether it's even remotely related to schoolwork.  
  
Chanyeol turns around too, though he knows exactly what he's doing. He's kicking Baekhyun in the leg and grabbing his robes at the shoulder, following his professor through the open pens. "Next time you nearly have me get caught not doing the work in class is one Magical Creatures lesson that won't pair up with you and I'll force you to work with one of the Girin girls who's got a weird crush on you. I know who they are." he says, finishing his warning as they arrive in front of a small gathering of Juji.  
  
He can already see that a few of them are tagged but he points to them helpfully. "How about you check those ones for tags? I'll tag these ones." he asserts, smiling as he leans forward to gather a few of the smaller looking ones into his arms. Not point in doing this slowly. The faster he gets this over with the faster he can sit on his ass and finish off the written work for this class. If he's lucky he might even be able to get out of class early.  
  
Though, as he looks over just in time to see one Juji fly into Baekhyun's face to pull his fringe while another starts nipping at his fingertips, Chanyeol's not counting on that last part happening. "You gotta grab them by the legs man." He leans forward showing the way he's got the beasts tucked against his body. "Like this." he explains, but the speed at which Baekhyun keeps grabbing at the larger ones of the bunch, is the speed with which the last seeds of Chanyeol's hope slip away.  
  
Professor Choi.  
  
Chanyeol’s not had the pleasure of her teaching since she’d only transferred after he’d dropped her subject. Since he's got no idea what to expect when he steps through the archway to her office, he's pleasantly surprised by the assortment of chocolatey snacks sitting on her desk. There's another few students in here, though the turnout isn't amazing and he feels something akin to sympathy for the professor's initiative not gaining the attention she perhaps expected.  
  
Considering he's heard about her popularity he's slightly surprised but it begins to click that the majority of students in the room are only the prefects from sixth year and the Head Boy and Girl. "Oh! Chanyeol-ah, welcome." Junmyeon's smile is bright as he edges around Joohyun, clapping a hand on Chanyeol's shoulder. A not so subtle murmur runs around the room, though Chanyeol doesn't know why, he thought it was pretty common knowledge that he was close with the Head Boy.  
  
He goes to reply but Professor Choi clears her throat, clearly having finished chatting with the Gyerong standing closest to her desk. Chanyeol knows he knows her name but for the life of him he can't seem to catch it amongst the rest of the names he's got swimming around the Important People's Name Section of his brain. "So, I suppose you all gave up some of your very precious lunch hour to come and see me about the tutoring opportunity I've made available for academically prestigious members of our school community." An audible gulp comes from the back of the room and when Chanyeol turns his head there's a very bright looking Ungnyeo. "Kyungsoo, I know that's not you, we'll talk about booking practice rooms in a second, do you mind waiting outside?" A fifth year. Chanyeol doesn't know how he knows but there's just something about the way the kid runs out of the room that makes it easy to pinpoint. When he turns around, Junmyeon’s flushed a bright pink.  
  
Collectively, the room turns back to look at Professor Choi and she's smiling as serenely as she usually did. If she ever frowns, Chanyeol doesn't know and by the looks of it, he's hoping not to find out. "I was planning on allocating you all within your house, but if any of you have objections about that we'll work around it. However that move is made with the need to have shared personality between the tutor and the tutee." The reasoning is sound and considering the vast pool of kids within his own house that needed some help with their subjects, Chanyeol’s not going to object. Besides, he’s not really interested in helping any other house look good when it comes to the end of year house scores. House Unity has its time and place and it’s  _not_  for things that count towards the House Cup.  
  
Everyone else in the room seems to agree and it's not long before Professor Choi is unfurling a long scrap of parchment she's cleanly pulled out from under her desk. "Now, I've bewitched the parchment to assign you a match as you finish writing your name. Any matching will be final and I expect you, as Prefects," she pauses, searching out for Junmyeon and Joohyun in the crowd, "And, Head Boy and Girl, to fulfil your promise of assisting your students as much as possible." It's a promise Chanyeol's familiar with, he'd made it when he'd been inducted as a prefect and it doesn't phase him to nod his head along with everybody else. He can do that; Girin were a good bunch of kids (with exceptions).  
  
They form a single file line and he tucks himself in just behind Junmyeon. It doesn't take that much time to get through the people in front of them, especially considering they're not at the exact back of the line.  
  
The quill Professor Choi forces them to use is oddly ostentatious for its purpose but considering the possibly rather complicated spell-work that would have been required to bewitch the parchment, he doesn't question. There's two columns, one labeled  _Tutor_  and the other  _Tutee_. As he begins to scratch his name in the left most one, a name ripples across the surface of the right side. In an attempt to keep himself in suspense a little longer, Chanyeol focuses on getting the strokes for his  _hanja_  just right. Once he's done, which honestly is only a few seconds more than usual, he casts his eyes over to the fresh ink no one wrote with.  
  
In that moment, when Chanyeol would probably say in the future say that he saw red, maybe with little splotches of black, he's telling the truth.  _ **Kim Jongdae**_.  
  
The three characters stand out fresh, squid ink black against the fresh parchment. Chanyeol feels his stomach drop into, well somewhere that isn't where his stomach is meant to be. "Kim Jongdae?" he wants to say it as a statement, like saying it out loud will make it make more sense but it comes out at as a question and all he gets in answer is a roar in whispers from the rest of the room.  
  
A stark reminder of the fact that Professor Choi had come to the school after he'd dropped Herbology comes when she leans forward, expectant of him to answer his own question. If Professor Bang was still, well it'd be a very different story and this issue would be fixed up quick smart. However good at controlling his emotions Chanyeol now was, there were just things that shouldn't be tested and this was one of them. How to explain that to someone who had no idea and extremely high expectations of her prefects? Questioning the sense of a Professor wasn't exactly recommended in the guide for the year before you're hoping to be appointed Head Boy. "He's just on my Quidditch team professor, I wasn't aware of the fact he needed assistance for his study, I'm excited to assist." he finally says, blanching at the renewed vigour with which the whispers start again.  
  
His professor leans back, nodding in understanding before gesturing for him to move so that the person standing behind him could be matched. He'd known who it was before he'd read Jongdae's name but now, well now all he's got ringing around his head is the slender writing that had sealed his fate. A shoulder bumps his and Chanyeol starts a little. "How are you doing Chanyeol-ah?" It's Junmyeon and his smile is as calming as anything possibly can be given the situation -- not very.  
  
"Kim Jongdae." he repeats, but when he sees the puzzle across Junmyeon's face Chanyeol realises that it's not a perfectly understandably explanation. He feels like it is. If anyone was going to understand it was going to be Junmyeon and if he didn't, well Chanyeol doesn't hold out much hope for maybe convincing Professor Choi later on. "I can't work with him." he adds, hoping that it maybe adds the context that Junmyeon is looking for.  
  
Apparently it's not working because Junmyeon just shrugs, "It's been a year and a bit Chanyeol, don't you think that you'll be able to figure out working with him? Just for this at least." There's about a dozen responses to that statement, all of them explaining just how wrong Junmyeon is but Chanyeol holds back for the sake of the ear drums of the rest of the people in the room.  
  
Breathing deep, like Professor Shim had taught him to do, Chanyeol nods, parsing out Junmyeon's statement as he does. "Would you believe," he pauses, thinking about the way to best phrase the next set of words without accidentally cursing Jongdae. "...he's managed to get more annoying since he was in Japan? I didn't think it possible but I'll admit, he's extremely talented in that area." he explains, smile stretched and fake.  
  
Junmyeon just looks while Chanyeol looks back. "You're a prefect Chanyeol, you need to learn how to bury a hatchet and move on for the sake of your fellow students." It's so quintessentially Junmyeon for him to say that and so  _right_  that Chanyeol's got nothing to argue back against. He's got nowhere to go. This was what he agreed to do when he sent off his confirmation owl after his receipt of the badge. Except there was a way fancier phrasing.  
  
Huffing out a breath, Chanyeol looks to the ceiling and then Professor Choi who's talking about letting them go and get some food before classes start. He doesn't let her words filter through beyond that because frankly, he doesn't care. Nothing wrong with sulking a little, he's allowed to be childish every now and then -- within reason. " _Fine_ , but I don't have to be happy about it." he grumbles, pouting at Junmyeon before practically stalking out of the room. It's hard to do when you've got to duck your head to get out of there without hitting it but after many years at the school, it's a skill he's managed to perfect.  
  
For a moment, he thinks about being so dramatic as to send a Patronus to someone else at his table asking them if they could save him some food but the spectacle would be too obvious. There'd be too much chance of Jongdae deciding that this was a perfect chance to be annoying and being the one to call the duty. Everyone else would let him, because hell hath no fury like a Kim Jongdae whose plan to annoy Park Chanyeol has been foiled. He decides to go to the lunch hall, albeit reluctantly.  
  


  
  
-

 

  
Mercifully, Jongdae isn't there when Chanyeol swoops into the dining hall all sulk and no sense, and he's able to settle into his seat beside Jeongyeon with relative ease. There's a nice selection of things out but all Chanyeol feels like doing is stuffing his face with rice and maybe a bit of the less spicy  _kim chi_. Everyone has the good sense to not say anything as he begins filling his rice bowl far beyond the usual amount. The house elves will just replenish the stuff on the table anyway. One of the few things he'd never understood about the culture of Yojeongseong was the weird obsession with portion sizes.  
  
"I'm grumpy so I'm gonna eat a lot of rice and then maybe go and complain to whoever is sitting next to me in the library for study hour and then I'm gonna eat a lot at dinner too. I'm a grown man." he grumbles, mouth half full with rice and there's the unsettling sound of someone taking a seat right next to him.  
  
A hand holding a bowl passes his head and scoops a few spoonfuls of rice into it with the bewitched spoon. "Grown men don't mad eat Chanyeol-ah." All his appetite is gone. Gentle mouth curls meet Chanyeol's eyes first as he turns to look at the student sitting next to him. "But I really hope whatever's bothering you is resolved soon. It's no good to eat when you're feeling mad." Jongdae's voice is solemn and he smiles softly before turning to his plate.  
  
There's just no way to escape him, unless he's literally in another country, Jongdae likes to pop up wherever Chanyeol is and make his presence incredibly well known. "Sure you do Jongdae, that's all you ever want for me, for my troubles to disappear so I can eat in peace." They both know that he's not at all convinced by Jongdae's words but apparently the fifth year has the gall to pretend that he's wounded.  
  
Breathing deep, Chanyeol pretends that Jongdae isn't there at all and returns to his eating, only allowing himself to focus on not breathing and swallowing at the same time. "If you want to be childish, be childish 'Yeol-ah, some of us have grown up in the past year." And that's the last straw. Chanyeol knew he shouldn't have come here to have lunch. Sending a patronus was suddenly sounding like a much better idea.  
  
Resisting the temptation to push out the entire bench to get up, Chanyeol pushes his bowl away from the edge of the table and rises. He's towering over Jongdae now and his fists are balled. "Listen, I don't know what it is about you that seems to like getting under my skin but I'm not gonna let you. I got shit to do this year Jongdae and I can do it despite you being a cocky asshole every-fucking-where I turn." There's something in Jongdae's eyes that makes him unreadable but Chanyeol doesn't stick around to find out what words are waiting to be said.  
  
Dropping the chopsticks he'd forgotten he was holding on to the table, he paces towards the doors, ignoring the "I'm not trying to get under your skin Park! Not my fault I'm irresistible." that follows him out into the hallway.  
  
The words are too loaded with things he's not thought about. Or maybe he has but he's just blocked them out. Chanyeol likes to pretend that he doesn't think about Jongdae but every time he tells himself that he doesn't, he's just lying.  
  
Catching his foot on a spare stone is what pulls Chanyeol out of whatever reverie he's lulled himself into with the even sound of his footsteps on the cobblestone hall and then the dirt of the trek to his special spot behind the dormitories. "Fuck!" he says it once but then it just, it starts coming out over and over again and then there's the silent fall of a single tear to the dirt. Another one follows after that and Chanyeol's trying really hard to not think about the fact that he's crying over Jongdae. That definitely gives him too much power.  
  
It's all just too much. He can't deal with Jongdae on the Quidditch team  _and_  tutor him at the same time. Either one alone would be easy to handle with the calming exercises he'd taught himself over the holidays and at the very start of the year. But both of them at the same time, it was going to sap too much of his precious energy. He'd end up self-combusting before the year was over. "God I can't do this." he grumbles out, scuffing his foot through the few splashes of his tears on the ground.  
  
He tries to do some of the breathing techniques he's gotten used to relying on but his breath shudders too much for it to be useful.  
  
Then there's footsteps and Chanyeol squeezes his eyes shut in anticipation of it being Jongdae, ready to bring create some more hell for his life. Fortunately it's a second year Gyerong with scrunched up eyes. "Excuse me mister, do you know where the bathrooms are? I wanted to go to my house's ones but I can't find them." Shuddering one more time, Chanyeol squats so their eyes are level.  
  
"Sure thing sweetheart. These paths, they get pretty confusing don't they? Just go around that tree there, I'll put in the password for you. Pesky woods." he straightens up before moving over to the small divet in the trees that accommodated the bathrooms for the Girin house. Leaning over he makes eye contact with the girl, who's smiling now, before whispering the password against the closest tree. The glamour drops and she nods her quick thanks before running into the stall.  
  
Chanyeol waits outside for her to come out, knowing that she'd need instructions to get back to the main clearing or to her next apparition point if she'd managed to get lost on the way to her own toilets. She reappears looking much less distressed and in turn Chanyeol feels his heart ease a little. "My name's Sejeong,  _Sunbae._ " Her voice whispers up at him the same way the breeze runs through the trees when the cherry blossoms have just bloomed. "Thank you a lot for your help." Chanyeol nods because of course, that's his job.  
  
"Anytime Sejeong- _hoobae_ , now you want to head right along that path there okay?" he pauses to point out the gentle dust path through the tree that he knew would take her to the Gyerong dorms. "Someone there will be able to help you get to your next class alright?  _Sunbae_  has a lot of studying to do." he says softly, nodding solemnly, only stopping when she bursts out laughing.  
  
She runs off with a nod, throwing a cheerful, "FIGHTING!" over her shoulder. Chanyeol replies with a pump of his fist in the air before turning back towards his dorms.  
  
Licking his lips, he steels himself to choose between sleeping for the hour between now and his next class and studying like he knows he's supposed to. The first option is very tempting but with the small reprieve Sejeong’s given him, Chanyeol's logic's telling him the second option is smarter. Swallowing his upset at Jongdae, Chanyeol rolls his shoulders and heads towards his dorm.  
  
"At least I don't gotta share a room with him," he grumbles, thanking whoever wasn't looking down on him for the small mercy. They'd had to do that in the years before Jongdae had exchanged at Mahoutokoro and it had been hell for both him but especially for the other Girin boys stuck in there with them.  
  
When he pushes back the door for his room, there's a soft pink box waiting in the middle of the floor. Without getting too cocky, Chanyeol knows it's for him, there's been a few times where he'd gotten written confessions on the floor next to his bed. Most of them were anonymous but there were a few that were definitely from houses other than Girin, which made him more curious about the black market in his house for confession delivery.  
  
Kicking it over to his bed with his foot, he pops the lid off as he slides his textbooks off the shelf just above his bed. "Sorry?" he reads aloud, brows pulling together as he reads the small note tucked inside the lid. There's nothing else, not even the obligatory chocolate concealed attempt at Amortentia. "Probably from Baekhyun." he whispers, tucking it into his History of Magic textbook. He'd been a bit of a dick the other day but no more than usual so it feels weird to get an apology from him but then again, Baekhyun tended to be weird sometimes. Out of the ordinary, but nothing to overthink.  
  
Adjusting himself on his bed Chanyeol reaches up, straining away from the bed until he's able to gently drop the needle down on his specially etched Ghibli compilation record. He hums along gently to the opening of  _Always With Me_  as he flips through the pages of his History of Magic textbook. Briefly he attempts to remember when Professor Yang had told them the page numbers but gives up once they're not forthcoming. A quick glance to his notes tucked inside the back cover tells him it's 232-264. "Not too bad." he whispers, a small smile pulling at his lips as the song reaches the bridge.  
  
Silently, he casts a charm, waving his hand through the air, focussing on the flow of magic from his wand at his hip up and through his arm til it coats the dust motes floating by the window. Blinking, he breathes life into the spell with a gentle incantation of peace and silence. He turns back to his book.  
  
The notes drip easily from his record player and soon, Chanyeol's too absorbed in his reading to notice the way they undulate forth. He knows the charm he's cast will break when it needs to, so there's nothing left for him to do beyond reading. So read he does. The music keeps on playing and as it does, Chanyeol's breath eases, the tentative melody warming his body through and through. Sometimes there's lyrics, sometimes it's just an instrumental but music is music; and Chanyeol is Chanyeol.  
  
Heaving sigh, Chanyeol's about to close his textbook when the bubble pops, his silencing charm falls and he's alerted to the presence of about seven other Girin boys now all crowded into the dorm. None of them an eye at the surprised gasp he gives, nor do any of them say anything as he scrambles to turn off his record player.  
  
When he does turn around, this time his chest heaves with surprise rather than the vague boredom that comes with reading for classes. "You pining for Jongdae even when he's back from Japan?" Chanyeol tries to cut in with an indignant noise but Junghwan plows on, adding "Wow, wish I had someone that interested in me."  
  
There's a soft voice at the back of his head telling him to not take it too seriously, out of the entire house, Junghwan was the last one who would ever want a fight. But it's too much and he's pulling himself up to his full height -- which amounts to a fair amount more than what Junghwan's got. "You know I don't like Jongdae and it ain't a good time Junghwan." he warns, rolling his shoulders, wishing he still had his prefect's badge on. He's usually not one for using his power to scare people but the subtle messaging could come in handy sometimes.  
  
Both of them suck in a breath, and for a moment they look like mirror images save for the height difference. Junghwan steps back though, almost in time with the fading of colour from his face. "Shit sorry man, I should have known, you don't usually do that silent bubble thing unless you're upset." Something flickers in his eyes but Chanyeol doesn't pursuit it, he doesn't want to know what he's not saying. "Good luck with Jongdae though, god knows you'll need it." Warmth shines through with those words and Chanyeol nods.  
  
Staying around and saying something is probably a better idea than walking off to the safety of his next class, but Chanyeol's dealt with enough today. "Thanks, Junghwan. Let me know if you're havin' any trouble with that Jinyoung guy in Ungnyeo, okay? I can still talk to Junmyeon- _hyung_." He gets a soft sigh in response that he takes as agreement before stepping away, ducking out of the dormitory door as quickly as he'd been returned to the world outside his History of Magic readings.  
  
Once he's out in the woods, having found his secret escape by muscle memory, Chanyeol releases a breath that's much the same as Junghwan's at the mention of Jinyoung. While it's true that he'd been unable to listen to that particular record for the first few months after Jongdae had left because the language link was undeniable, he thought he'd gotten over that. Those childish tendencies to cut off anything Jongdae liked, did, or could possibly do, were shaken off in fifth year. They're allowed to like the same thing. "He probably doesn't even like Ghibli movies." Chanyeol grumbles to himself, still a little annoyed at Jongdae (though he'd never admit it but it's not nearly as much as before).  
  
"Everyone likes Ghibli movies Chanyeol- _chan_." A voice says softly over Chanyeol's shoulder. "Are you hiding out?" it adds, as if the first words weren't enough to force him to start out of his despairing search for answers about Jongdae.  
  
He blinks, once, twice, thinks about doing it for a third time before deciding that Jongdae's definitely there to stay and he's not going away. "No." he answers, scuffing the dirt as he searches for a way out.  
  
Jongdae pulls his lips down, but it doesn't work; Chanyeol can still see slight curls upwards at the side. "You're tutoring me. That's going to be awkward isn't it?" His eyebrows do that thing that Chanyeol can't really describe but it's like they're reaching into his very soul and demanding honesty. Eyebrows of truth.  
  
He resists. Smiling gently in return, "No, I don't think it should be Jongdae- _yah_. Though I'll admit that I was surprised you even need tutoring." He pauses to lean in, "I thought you were meant to be a genius, that was why you were picked to go to Mahoutokoro instead of me isn't it?" he asks, pulling away with a smirk on his face. With the way Jongdae's been eagerly worming his way under his skin lately, it's nice to get a good jab in there. While he's willing to admit that it's a sore spot, when it comes to annoying Kim Jongdae, Chanyeol's never one to shy away from an easy play.  
  
Carefully, as if he's about to be electrocuted, Chanyeol lays his hands on Jongdae's shoulders. "Now, if my tutee doesn't hop out of the way, his  _sunbae_  is going to be late for the next class." he smiles genially, thinking for a second before adding on, "And so will you." The second time round he laces his voice with a smooth layer of  _I'm a prefect and you're not_.  
  
Jongdae gets the message and shuffles backwards, branches messing up his hair. "They don't focus much on practical magic over there, I guess you're really good at it and that's why we were paired up." he says, smoothing his hand through his hair in a vague attempt to get rid of branches. His eyes flutter closed. "I'm sure I'm very lucky to have you Chanyeol- _ah_."  
  
His stomach flips. "You don't have anything Jongdae. You're a fellow student who needs help, any other good Girin would step in to help you." Chanyeol falters at the way Jongdae's eyes open again, an unreadable emotion running through them. It's the second time in far too short of a time he's had to pretend not to see something like that; frankly he'd rather deal with Junghwan's confused bunch of feelings.  
  
He waits, feeling weird about it but almost like he should give Jongdae the chance to say something witty back, like he always does. All he gets though, is a half hearted laugh and a "You're right, our Chanyeol- _ah_  is such a good prefect." Which he'd usually read as a sly remark but there's no heart in it, and it feels  _too_  mean to go after it.  
  
"Thank you." he winds up replying, but it's to thin air. Jongdae apparates with less of a  **POP**  than Chanyeol's used to. He wants to think about it but something at the back of his brain tells him to take the easy win and get the hell out of here so Professor Yang doesn't yell at him for being any later than he already is  
  


  
  
-

 

  
  
“I’m just saying that I think you’re going to have to rethink the approach to Professor Go’s challenge.” Junghwan’s mouth is full of hotteok and the loud munching coming from beside him, courtesy of a far too smiley for this hour of the morning, Seokjin.  
  
Chanyeol pauses, pulling his bottom lip through his teeth before biting down on a piece of kim chi he's had hovering in front of his mouth for the last five minutes. "But the challenge involves collecting a piece of gold from the ceiling using only transfiguration." he points out, cheeks going bright red as a piece of food goes flying from his mouth.  
  
There's a collective nod but Chanyeol's got the feeling they're all agreeing to different things. "What if the gold isn't visible from the floor?" He points out, adding in a nudge to Chanyeol's shoulder before tucking more rice than strictly necessary into his mouth. It throws a stick into the bicycle wheel that is Chanyeol's plan and honestly, he wants be annoyed but the smile that Seokjin throws him is too warm and filled with rice for him to be anything but amused. "Just trying to help Chanyeollie." he adds.  
  
It's true, he's helping and frankly, Chanyeol hadn't thought of that. Professor Go had a way of being tricky with the things he'd do to make sure that his challenges weren't too easy. He starts rifling through the drawers of his mind to find a solution but one jumps out to him far quicker than expected. "I transfigure the ceiling into glass then get on with the rest of it." he says, smiling softly at Seokjin before setting to work wrapping a piece of kim chi around a small ball of rice resting on the plate floating in front of him.  
  
"Wah! As expected, Chanyeollie, he's a genius!" Junghwan bursts out with an incredulous laugh, slapping Seokjin on the shoulder as he giggles in reply. The praise isn't entirely well placed, Chanyeol's just become accustomed to having to think his way out of Professor Go's conundrums. Though the faith his peers have in him is nice to hear.  
  
In more hushed tones, "Girin is so going to get those house points for the challenge. Gyerong won't know what hit them." Seokjin replies, not so subtly high-fiving Junghwan across the table, laughing that laugh he laughs when there's an inside joke. Chanyeol had learnt to get over not knowing what Seokjin and Junghwan were talking about half the time in the middle of their first year. Some friendships were just made to not be understood by those from the outside. As someone who's friends with Byun Baekhyun, Chanyeol's privy to what it's like being on the other side of that particular type of friendship. "Most people don't even know what Niffler is." he hears Seokjin whisper, mouth full of food.  
  
Chanyeol pulls his brows together to look at one of his closest housemates, "Uh Seokjin, they're like, first year Magical Creature work. Do you not remember?" As soon as he finishes he remembers that it's highly likely Seokjin doesn't. Most of the practical stuff passes him by, which is fair enough; Seokjin knows where he's going and shit involving what animals can kill you and what ones can't isn't part of that.  
  
His thoughts are proven true when Seokjin looks at him quizzically before shrugging in a duh kinda manner. "If you don't need to make a potion specifically related to them, I don't care Mr Park." Seokjin replies, hamming up his voice until it sounds like Potions Professor Lee. It's a pretty spot on impression and Chanyeol doesn't have much luck biting back his laugh, though he does manage to stop himself from spitting his food all over Seokjin's fresh robes. He'll count it as a victory.  
  
Nodding sombrely Chanyeol picks up a thin piece of beef, holding it across his upper lip, having a good stab at the moustache their Headmaster rocks. "Now now, Kim Seokjin-ssi, we must respect all courses of magical disciplines." He barely reaches the end of the line before he and the rest of his group are cracking up into a barely restrained cackle fest.  
  
Junghwan picks up the baton with a high pitched rendition of an announcement Professor Yoon had made just last week, forcing Chanyeol and Seokjin into unrestrained fits of laughter.  
  
They're still going until a piece of mail (that Chanyeol assumes was delivered half an hour earlier) flies over head, only just missing his head, though it clears his two friend's with a healthy amount of room. "YAH! My mail!" Leaning back, Chanyeol sees a fifth year girl scrambling up onto her seat in an ill advised attempt to grab at the package. It circles slowly just out of her reach.  
  
Scanning the group of students laughing around her, Chanyeol spots a wand pointed towards the delivery. Following the line of the student's arm, he spots the head, and face connected to it. "Kim Jongdae!" he booms, climbing out from the awkward seating, not tearing his eyes away from the perpetrator.  
  
"SHIT." Jongdae yells before hastily attempting to disentangle him from the same cumbersome seating.  
  
The package drops through the air and there's a groan from a small looking first year on the other side of the table. "Get back here!" Chanyeol calls out as he watches Jongdae try and make a dash for the exit. He doesn't want to have to accio his watch or something equally bizarre to get him to stop but Chanyeol knows it wouldn't be the first time, nor would it probably be the last.  
  
Luckily, Jongdae saves them both the trouble and stops short of sprinting out of the dining hall, instead turning to look at Chanyeol with gloomy eyes. He knows what's coming, and it's not just Chanyeol being pissy over being pranked. It's the weight of a prefect coming down hard and fast on his antics. Chanyeol could stand Jongdae being an ass to him, but he wasn't such a great fan of the boy doing it to other people.  
  
He doesn't need to say anything for Jongdae to follow him out of the dining hall. The chill of the autumn breeze whips through their cloaks as they step out into the rays of completely useless sunshine. "Before you say anything, it wasn't what it looked like." Jongdae cuts in, before Chanyeol even has a chance to say anything. Unlikely.  
  
"Unlikely, Jongdae, you've fucked me around like that before." he points out, vaguely recalling an occasion just before they'd poured into the end of year ferries.  
  
Jongdae huffs, "Yeah but you ain't her are you? I'm friends with her! Which y'know, despite my multiple attempts in first year Park Chanyeol, we never became!" Something shifts on Jongdae's face, his cheekbones seem to become more angled and his jaw locks in frustration.  
  
The comment stings and Chanyeol locks his jaw too, refusing to let this get personal. "Jongdae-yah. You need to watch yourself otherwise I'm gonna have to pull you up to the head of the house's office." he pauses, squinting against the early morning sunlight. There's a girl standing in the doorway, leaning forwards, getting on her tip-toes even to try and get a look at whether he'd taken Jongdae's wand. "I'll let you off today, since it does look like she ain't upset, but if I catch you being a dick again, you know how it'll go down Jongdae." he warns.  
  
After a quick glance over his shoulder, Jongdae's expression changes back as if nothing had happened. His smile is soft and his eyes dancing as he fixes Chanyeol with a conspiratorial smile. "Oh, of course Yeollie, I know exactly how it'll go down." It's ominous enough by itself but the wink that Jongdae pairs it with sets Chanyeol's nerves on fire in a way he's unfamiliar with. Suspicion, paired with something else. "Don't forget big boy," he leans in, straightening the seam of his robes, "we have a date this afternoon." Chanyeol swallows. Jongdae turns to face the girl waiting for him in the doorway. "We ain't friends but we sure are something else!"  
  
It's a miracle that Chanyeol manages to choke out a weak, "I just tutor you." but it's too late and Jongdae's disappeared back into the hall to sit back down with the girl and laugh about him. That's definitely what they're doing right now, they're laughing about him and probably doing impressions of him just like Junghwan, Seokjin, and he had been doing of their teachers. They're laughing at him being overdramatic and hung up on shit from fourth year and he's got to walk back in there because his book bag and shit is in there.  
  
Then! Then! Right after this, Chanyeol's going to have to go to classes with the knowledge that he's got to face Jongdae in a couple hours, knowing that he's probably in peak time to mess around with Chanyeol mode. But to go to those classes, Chanyeol is going to need his books, and all the other stuff that goes into a book bag that isn't a book because he can't be bothered having another bag.  
  
Swallowing his pride as well as the knot of whatever else that's been there since Jongdae had pulled at his robe, Chanyeol strides back into the hall. He ignores the way that Jongdae's leaning back from the table, eyes searching to lock with him. Jongdae's had enough satisfaction today, Chanyeol's not going to give him any more -- and that includes this afternoon.  
  
After a shared look of understanding between he and the Seokjin/Junghwan duo, Chanyeol takes his bag, which is being held out for him by Seokjin, and leaves. He walks and rifles through the contents, searching for his Muggle Studies notebook, filled with notes from his fire call with his mother the other day. He hadn't really needed to call her for the assignment but it had come up while they'd been chatting over the new dish she'd come up with for the colder seasons. She was the one who'd forced him to take notes, insisting that he wouldn't remember 'til too late what they were talking about. She wasn't wrong.  
  
He wants to march off to the other side of the campus, skipping the apparation trip to the Muggle Studies classroom. A small voice in his brain attempts to rationalise it - “it would really help you get into the mood for the class” - but Chanyeol knows it’s just because he’s being shitty and he wants to grumpy stomp.  
  
He feels stupid this time. All that shit he’d told himself about not letting Jongdae distract him and what does he get for it? He’d almost jumped all the way down Jongdae’s through just then and all he was doing was playing with one of his friends. Sure it had gotten a little out of hand since it was distracting the rest of the houses from eating, but thinking back on it, he knows he hadn’t needed to pull Jongdae out here.  
  
Leaves crunch under his feet and after a few minutes of trying to time his breathing in with the crunches, Chanyeol feels a little better. But something still tells him that he needs to apologise to Jongdae. “Later.” he tells himself, because despite the fact that he knows he messed up, he’d much rather not having to do it in front of the whole entire school.  
  
Jongdae can wait until Chanyeol has a chance to apologise to him in private – that way if he wants to be a dick, they’ll have no witnesses to Chanyeol hexing him into next week. Kicking a stick into the bushes and maybe (definitely) pretending that it’s Jongdae’s wand, Chanyeol pulls out his own. If he actually does walk all the way across campus he’s going to be way later than he usually is – he says usually because for some reason there’s still a ways to go from the apparation point to the actual class spot.  
  
Oh God, they’ve got Quidditch this afternoon too. That’s going to be fun.  
  
With a flick of his wrist, Chanyeol feels himself be sucked inwards and outwards at same time, all while being pulled both clockwise and anti-clockwise.  
  


  
  
-

 

  
  
It’s raining.  
  
The clouds came out of nowhere, and Chanyeol’s inclined to think that it’s some wayward magic.  
  
Still, wayward magic or not, he doesn’t have an umbrella. For some reason he doesn’t mind, his robes are stuck to his body and his hair is pressed flat against his forehead. It feels like a very accurate representation of his near constant mood these days.  
  
Blinking, he tries to remember the specific wand pattern he needs to get into the dorms but they’d had to change it just two days earlier and these days, well Chanyeol’s just got so much on his plate.  
  
Part of him wants to cry, shed some of the emotion that’s just waiting for a chance to spill forth. It’s either a good cry in front of his dorms on a Thursday afternoon while it’s bucketing down rain or some other occasion where he’s not got a choice. Sniffling, he finds that his body has made that choice for him.  
  
_God_  he wants to just sink into the mud, maybe til he can’t breathe anymore. Jongdae’s waiting for him in the  _fucking_  main castle and he’s FUCKING. STANDING. HERE. BECAUSE. HE. CAN’T. REMEMBER. THE. WAND. PATTERN.  
  
Jongdae.  
  
Shoulders shuddering, Chanyeol’s mind turns to Jongdae. Stupid Jongdae with his stupid need to have help with stupid subjects at stupid school because he did a stupid exchange year. As he scrubs at his face, tears champing at the bit to mix with magic tinged rain, he thinks briefly about cancelling on Jongdae. He’d understand right?  
  
They’d had to cancel their first thing (Chanyeol feels weird calling it a lesson) because Jongdae had managed to snap about 21 finger bones (phalanges).  
  
It had been kind of cute to be there when Healer Park had needed to explain to a very distraught Jongdae that he hadn’t grown extra fingers, just that there are multiple bones per fingers. As Team Captain, Chanyeol had been the one who’d apparated he and Jongdae to the medical ward.  
  
Something in him had wanted to be angry, there’s always something in him waiting to be angry -- a slow fire burning ready for gasoline to be thrown on it. Jongdae’s tears of pain had extinguished it. He’d been sobbing, fingers pointing every which way, and begging Chanyeol for help.  
  
His knees give way, dropping Chanyeol into the mud before he’s got a chance to sit on the porch attached to the sixth year’s rooms.  
  
For all the training Chanyeol had received before the incident, he’d not known what to do. It was simple to an outsider. Just apparate them straight to the medical area, preferably straight into a bed, but there was something totally disarming about the way Jongdae’s eyes had searched his. They’d locked on to him like Chanyeol had the power to take away all of his pain.  
  
Which he did, or at least he had the power to get him to someone that could. He knows that now, hands sinking into the mud, a week after it’s all happened but in the moment...there’d been nothing but the despair on Jongdae’s face and the wavering of Chanyeol’s soul.  
  
Because that’s what it was, a twang of something he knew he wasn’t meant to feel, no matter how disastrous this was, no matter how much this would set them back for the House Cup. This was Jongdae, on his back, screaming in pain and all Chanyeol could do was scoop him up in his arms and tell him it was going to be alright.  
  
_Jongdae_. Things kept coming back to that damn trouble-maker.  
  
He’s all bandaged up now, hands in weird slings Chanyeol doesn’t quite understand the engineering of -- though Healer Park assured him  _magic doesn’t need logic_. But he hadn’t been at first. First he’d been screaming in pain, then he’d been giggling from the pain relief potion,  _then_  he’d been sobbing again (The Extra Fingers Incident), then finally he’d been sleeping.  
  
Which was what caught Chanyeol up the most. The sleeping part was fine, you’re meant to do that after you hurt yourself seriously and your body needs time to metabolise the potion remedies and heal. What bothered him the most was that he fell asleep next to him.  
  
Now, Chanyeol doesn’t want to say that anything he experienced was on par with the pain Jongdae was obviously going through but there indeed a significant amount of worry going on. And sure he was worried about Jongdae, he’s his teammate, if this stuff got fucked up the entire team would be fucked -- they didn’t have anyone to cover Jongdae’s position.  
  
There’d been something else though, looming in his conscious.  
  
“You alright Chanyeol-ah?” Seokjin’s voice is soft, and the touch of his hand is even lighter on Chanyeol’s shoulder. He’s been super gentle since Chanyeol had come back to the dorm all washed out worry and lack of sleep eyebags after the Jongdae thing.  
  
Considering he’s knee deep in mud that he’s not going to be able to just shake off, Chanyeol’s unsure of how he’s meant to answer truthfully. So he doesn’t, instead he rifles around in his mind for a different question that he’s sure Seokjin wishes he could ask. “I care about him.” he mumbles, then tries to rub the little globules of spit that have started to pool around his mouth. It’s a pretty weak attempt and all he gets in return is a smear of mud across his face with the cherry on top of some  _in_  his mouth.  
  
Seokjin drops into a squat, pulling up his hand til it can trail back through Chanyeol’s hair and land on his shoulder again. Rinse and repeat. “Him?” he asks, eyebrows pulling into the question the word requires.  
  
It takes all of a second and a half for Chanyeol’s face to crumple. “Seokjin-ah! Why does it have to be so hard?’ He wants to battle the tears that he knows are going to come anyway but his breath is already coming hard and fast as he buries his head in the crook of Seokjin’s neck.  
  
For his part, Seokjin doesn’t question, instead quietly transitioning to a gentle patting of his back. “You’re doing good ‘Yeol.” The quiet platitude is whispered above his ear, barely rustling any of his hair. It sounds like a lie, something just to try and make him feel better about how shittily he’s been handling this situation.  
  
This whole thing with Jongdae could have been dealt with so easily if Chanyeol had just been able to stow his crap, if he’d been able to just  _fucking_  get over it. BUT. His stupid brain and it’s sixteen year old propensity for not just,  _not giving a fuck_  has gotten him here.  
  
Gentle tolls of a piano drift through the door as Seokjin whispers (empty) comforts. A laugh huffs against Chanyeol’s ear, the breath jarringly warm compared to the cool weather. “Chanyeol-ah, did you leave your record on?” he asks, drawing back to frame Chanyeol’s face. The expression Seokjin’s wearing tells him that he best not try and deny it.  
  
“I thought I’d be able to get back by the time it started auto-playing, it’s a new spell I’m trying out.” Red flushes his face for no particular reason. It’s homework set for his muggle studies classes; ‘To what extent could muggle inventions and music work together?’, it had been a struggle to get the enchantment to work at all -- Muggle technology was often reluctant to co-operate.  
  
“And when were you planning for it to start autoplaying?” Seokjin whispers as Chanyeol hears a few third years squelch their way to their dorm rooms.  
  
Scrubbing his eyes on Seokjin’s, now soaked, robe, Chanyeol pouts. “Five PM.” he grumbles.  
  
He gets a deep sigh for his efforts when Seokjin looks at his watch and informs him gently, “‘Yeollie, it’s three PM. Did you get account fo the difference in numbers for twenty-four hour time and…” he squints, looking for a word, “ _not_  twenty-four hour time?”  
  
“Twelve hour time.”  
  
“I knew that.”  
  
“No I didn’t consider the differences.” Chanyeol catches himself when he goes to rub at his eyes, the perpetual tiredness of sith year getting to him, though not enough to smear fresh mud across his eyelids. That’d be a bitch to get out even with the help of Seokjin’s fairly extensive skincare collection. “I’m gonna have to fix that.” he grumbles, though it breaks of with one of those little hiccoughs that come after you’ve been having a good old cry. It’s a little unfair, Chanyeol wasn’t to decry , since his actual crying session wasn’t that long. “Wait, what’d you say the time was?”  
  
“It’s...three minutes past three Chanyeol, why do you gotta be somewhere? I thought this afternoon was our study session for Defence Against the Dark Arts?” Shit yeah, it is. Chanyeol’s just completely forgotten.  
  
Anything that’s not Jongdae these past couple of weeks has just been put on a back burner, and honestly it’s a miracle that Seokjin had even wrangled him into agreeing to a study session. “Uhhh yeah man, I’m gonna have to, y’know.” Sniff, “Bail on you, I gotta do that thing with Jongdae.” Another sniff. He really hopes these are gone by the time his session starts. Since he wants them to go away, they probably won’t.  
  
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Seokjin supplies sagely, waving his wand gently over Chanyeol’s hands, muttering an almost silent charm to wash away the mud. When he sweeps the scope of his wand down to his robes and knees as he stands, Chanyeol’s almost sure the charm is silent and Seokjin’s just mouthing it to guide the magic on its way.  
  
He sniffs again, though it’s a little weaker than the other ones. “I’m about to walk into the lion’s den, that’s like the last thing you would do.” he grumbles, though his voice breaks off when Seokjin fixes him a look that allows no reproach.  
  
“You’re walking into a room with a fellow student who needs assistance. You’re a Girin, bearer of the horned deer. You can do this Chanyeol.” He’s not sure how much he buys into the steadfast assurance, but when Junghwan walks past, completely dry due to his forethought of an umbrella, and receives an encouraging thumbs up, Chanyeol swallows any doubts.  
  
He’s had his cry for the day. And it’s not like Jongdae’s got to know about how his stomach twists in knots.  
  
With the final nod that Seokjin gives him, waiting before Chanyeol nods back, he allows his mind to drift to the thought of Jongdae in a non-combative way for the first time since their first year.  
  
His friends draw into the dorm after giving him a slow and careful example of the wand pattern needed but Chanyeol’s afraid he’s not logged it away anywhere. Too busy is he with the thoughts of a fresh faced Jongdae with a barely perceptible sprinkling of freckles across his cheeks and those pairs on his temple and under his eyebrows that the demonstration is lost.  
  
And this is how Chanyeol finds himself walking back to the castle, already ten minutes late from when he’s set out but the thought of apparating seems silly when walking gives him more time to sort through the vision he’d always stored behind a red tinted glass.  
  
When Jongdae is waiting for him, it’s with the door open and his arms in all their bandaged glory leaning on a table. “Hey big boy, was starting to think you’d stood me up.” He’s looking at him like that again, like he had the morning before Quidditch.  
  
“Nah, just, I got held up at the dorm, Jongdae, no worries. I’m gonna help you.” Like when they’d woken up the night after Jongdae had been put in the medical wing and Chanyeol had drooled in his hair. Wait, that was kind of gross, why did Jongdae look at him so nice after? Maybe it was ‘cause he got fresh blackmail material. Chanyeol makes a face.  
  
With a bit of effort, Jongdae swivels in his chair, resting on of his arms on the back of the chair with the other held close to his chest. “You alright ‘Yeol-ah?” It’s enough to snap Chanyeol out of it and he’s leaning forward to prompt his feet forward.  
  
His eyes zero in on Jongdae’s hands. “Am I alright?” he asks pointedly. “Do you even gotta wear those, didn’t Healer Park fix that up for you? She had you dosed up to the eyeballs.” he sounds more concerned than he feels he should but maybe that’s a result of his brain not being able to shake the feeling he’s meant to be upset at Jongdae.  
  
Apparently what he’s said is at least mildly amusing because Jongdae’s mouth stretches wide and he shakes his head in time with his shoulders with amusement. “Apparently the bones are still weaker for a couple of weeks after the break, even with the potion. I have to keep them strapped down, don’t worry ‘Yeol-ah.” It feels like he’s dancing around something, like saying it would make it too real, giving a power to a feeling he doesn’t really have the strength to confront yet. Chanyeol gets it.  
  
There’s something like an apology in Jongdae’s eyes when Chanyeol searches them. “I won’t, just so long as you keep on healing Jongdae-yah.” It’s the first time Chanyeol’s used the intimacy marker with Jongdae, but he doesn’t wait to see how it will land, instead opting to charge straight into the lesson.  
  
“RIGHT SO! History of Magic, within a Korean context! Let’s get into it.” He announces, charging towards the board, pulling his wand out to start flicking his notes across the blackboard.  
  
At least this way he doesn’t have to acknowledge the burn of Jongdae’s unrelentless gaze on his back.  
  
(And maybe, with some wishful thinking, other places too).  
  


  
  
-

 

  
  
Thursday afternoons are the bane of Chanyeol’s existence.  
  
They start with Quidditch, the perfect time for Jongdae to look all dashing with his black and gold robes whipping in the wind.  
  
They end in Jongdae leaning on his hands and asking for a little more explanation, as if the thirty minutes of talking Chanyeol had just done wasn’t enough.  
  
Individually, it would be all fine, but as it is, Chanyeol’s just about ready for a meltdown by the end of term. Winter has settled in well and truly by the time the younger students start packing up to go home, and while Chanyeol would love to go home, that’s not really an option with the G.O.R.A.Ls coming up.  
  
It’s not all that surprising when Jongdae breaks it to him on the final Thursday before the end of term that he’s staying as well. The Chaser was more studious than Chanyeol had thought going into their first session. It was vaguely infuriating. He’d been so caught up in being annoyed at Jongdae for the first couple of weeks to notice the level of attentiveness he showed and the veracity with which he completed the exercises Chanyeol gave him.  
  
“I thought you wanted me to study? That’s why I signed up for the tutor program.” was what he’d said when Chanyeol had expressed his surprise.  
  
He’d had to reply with a gentle, “Well, you didn’t study that much in second year, I remember you tryna peek over my shoulder while Hyunnie and I were writing our Charms essays in the library. You were worse than a Gyeongeo!” It had turned to a bit of a hiss at the end but it was an affectionate sort of hiss (which Chanyeol wasn’t really happy to admit), so he wasn’t going to count it.  
  
And Jongdae had smiled like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth, leaning forward, “Mm but ‘Yeol-ah, it’s not second year. Or did I need to help you with your maths?”  
  
It had made him blush. Plain and simple.  
  
Not because Jongdae had embarrassed him either, because his lashes had looked so soft and his lips had curled just a little differently.

  
  
-

 

  
  
They’re sitting out beside the pond that laps just out of the view of the Girin dormitories -- the fact that it’s frozen isn’t relevant right now. The sun is just setting, gathering up all the gold it can muster and spilling it across the sky in peach and purple sheathed swords. “Wah, it really is pretty isn’t it Chanyeol-ah?” Jongdae’s little (by comparison) feet kick out in front of them.  
  
Chanyeol sniffs, smiling as he looks up from the textbook, biting back a tight retort. The fact that the sky was pretty was acknowledged fairly blatantly by the fact that it was the only reason Chanyeol had agreed to hold the lesson outside. There’d also been the perfectly reasonable fact that Chanyeol had been easily swayed by a rather large pair of puppy eyes on behalf of a Mister Kim Jongdae.  
  
“Mm nature is really magical. Do you mind explaining to me why wizards cannot manipulate the colour of the sky?”  
  
Sunlight bathes Jongdae’s face as his brows pull together in contemplation of the question, like it’s one of the most complicated things Chanyeol’s ever asked him. “I know this is going to be a trick question ‘Yeol-ah.” His voice takes on a pleased tone, as if he’s cracked the code of Park Chanyeol. He’s got a feeling Jongdae’s going to be fairly out of luck. “Is it just because we haven’t figured out the mechanics of it yet? Magically?”  
  
“ _Ddaeng,_ ” Chanyeol announces, laughing as Jongdae flops back onto the snow in frustration. Leaning over, til their eyes meet and there’s the shadow of Chanyeol’s head over Jongdae’s head. “It’s because the sky is too large of an area for any one wizard to take on.” he explains, eyes flicking over to the textbook he’s got gripped in his right hand. “We can manipulate smaller areas of space, like y’know that floating sky kinda deal they got going on in the Hogwarts castle eatin’ area.”  
  
Jongdae’s mouth pulls down as much as it can at the sides (though, he’s still got the lip curls plain as day), “I’ve never been to Hogwarts, how am I meant to know that?” he asks softly, pouting as his eyes scan his tutor’s face.  
  
Leaning forward, Chanyeol glances around as if he’s about to share the most top secret secret of all secrets. Finally, his eyes settle on Jongdae’s and narrow, “There’s these things called photos ‘Dae.”  
  
For his effort he gets a bright smile and a puff of laughter as Jongdae propels himself forward. For a second Chanyeol thinks he’s going to stop just short of his face or roll away at the last minute. He doesn’t though, instead Jongdae keeps going until their lips meet and their foreheads press together.  
  
He goes to pull away but there’s a hand curling in the hair at the nape of his neck and there’s just something about it that makes him melt into the touch. The push and pull is gentle, if not a little hasty. It feels like Jongdae’s celebrating something silently, maybe he is and Chanyeol’s just not allowed to know what it is.  
  
Finally, he pulls away, breath heaving as he concentrates on the slowly dilating pupils in front of him. “If this is some stupid prank just, quit it okay ‘Dae?” he hates the way his breath heaves with the worry that this might be anything other than a final confession of true affection.  
  
Something softens in Jongdae’s expression. It shifts from a pursuant focus to a bright eyed affection. “You know, I’m kinda disappointed you didn’t figure out I gave up pranking you in like third year.” Usually there’d be some sore of incensed indignation in there somewhere but today...well Chanyeol can’t detect a trace of it, and its unusually relieving. “Mind if I kiss my dumbass tutor without some kinds of ulterior motives?” And there it is, a smirk curling into Jongdae’s smile and Chanyeol’s only got one solution to save him from the hell that is Jongdae teasing him.  
  
He kisses him. Once. Twice. Three times. A few more times all across his face until Jongdae’s breaking out into giggles. “Thought you hated me?” he whispers, shifting til he’s on his side, and Jongdae’s got a chance to not be in the awkward position kissing requires.  
  
Jongdae brushes the snow from Chanyeol’s knees, his hand staying glued to the knee closest to him as he settles his eyes out on the lake. “Stopped doing that a long time ago.” he heaves a laugh that’s heavier with sadness than the happiness he’d been glowing with two seconds earlier. “Kinda hurt when I came back from Japan and you were…” he trails off, pulling his gaze from the shoreline on the opposite side. “...Well, you thought we had to keep goin’ the way we were.” His nose is a little pink and he’s sniffling too. Chanyeol’s strangely sure that it’s not because of the cold.  
  
Since when has he been so in tune with Jongdae’s feelings? “I thought  _you_  thought we had to keep goin’ the way we were!” he says, pointing a gloved finger accusatorily at Jongdae. It has the desired effect, Jongdae bursts into laughter and flings some snow through the air presumably with the end goal of hitting him in the face. Instead, Chanyeol manages to flick his wrist and heat the snow to water, the globule holding its shape midair.  
  
“Don’t you dare.” Jongdae warns, but his hands are already surreptitiously forming a ball of snow.  
  
Chanyeol swishes his wand from one side to another. “Oh, I dare.” Jongdae doesn’t have his wand so it would be an unfair fight but, Jongdae’s had his victory for the day with his kiss. Chanyeol’s willing to stage this fight even if it’ll come back to bite him in the ass later.  
  
“PARK CHANYEOL I HAVE HAD A CRUSH ON YOU SINCE HALFWAY THROUGH LAST YEAR AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME!!” Jongdae shrieks as Chanyeol feints the water towards him. With those words though, Chanyeol drops the ball to the ground, letting it melt into the snow.  
  
“Oh?”  
  
“Don’t.”  
  
And while Chanyeol  _knows_  he’s been silently counselling himself to let sleeping dogs lie this year, there’s something about Jongdae all those kilometres away still thinking about him that makes him unable to quit while he’s ahead. “Last year you say? What’d you do? Fall for me through the school newsletter?” He gets a face full of snow for that but honestly, it’s a fair cop.  
  
Jongdae’s on him in a second though, fingers flicking snow from Chanyeol’s fringe til he’s able to see again. Something akin to fear cools Jongdae’s eyes. “Relax,” Chanyeol whispers, brushing the rest of the attack from his face as he holds Jongdae’s gaze. “I like you too ‘Dae. Generally don’t kiss dudes I’m not into.” he explains, catching Jongdae’s wrists to keep his hands pressed to his face. Gloves separate them, but it’s still pretty romantic. Cheesy enough too that Chanyeol’s cheeks heat up with something other than that radiating from Jongdae’s touch.  
  
Something blooms inside Chanyeol’s chest, like the admission is thawing something long buried. How long it’s been buried for, Chanyeol doesn’t want to think about. What matters is the way Jongdae’s smiling at him. “Was actually when Mahoutokoro and Yojeongseong had that friendly Quidditch match. I wasn’t able to play because the team at Mahoutokoro wouldn’t take me on. It was the first time I got to see you playing Quidditch from the sidelines, as someone who didn’t have to worry about the game or tactics or anything.” Nostalgia fills his voice and something about the way he whispers fills Chanyeol’s body with the phantom aches he’d accrued from the notoriously battering winds of the Mahoutokoro grounds.  
  
Thumbs smooth over Chanyeol’s jawline, meeting at his chin. “You just looked so fierce and well,  _attractive_. Which was fine by itself, you can find people attractive especially when they’re in their element.” Jongdae uses his grip on Chanyeol’s head to make him nod along. “But it was after everything was over and we, Yojeongseong won and you smiled the widest smile I’ve ever seen someone smile…” he falls silent and honestly, Chanyeol’s not sure what he’s meant to fill the silence with. Laughter? Some witty comment that smacks of him not having any words to match Jongdae’s?  
  
“I don’t know how long I’ve had feelings, y’know?” he blinks for a second, scanning Jongdae’s face to make sure he’s still listening. When he’s sure that he is, Chanyeol charges on like a steam engine. “You always irked the shit out of me, Jongdae. Whenever I told my friends here or back in Seoul about it they’d always tease me about being that guy that hated the person he actually liked. It seemed kinda ridiculous y’know? That I could dislike someone so much only to like them. So I just wrote it off, kept on hating you but putting up with you ‘cause we had to. Then you went off to Mahoutokoro in fifth year and something...felt different, right?” he laughs, but doesn’t leave enough space for Jongdae to jump in.  
  
“That entire year I just told myself it was because I could finally focus on shit without you buggin’ me. But you’d still fuckin pop up. I couldn’t listen to my soundtracks without thinking of you because they were in Japanese and you were in Japan. My brain just wouldn’t let me forget you Jongdae.” he complains but there’s no heart in it. “And you came back and things fell back into place again, I knew what I was meant to do with my thoughts over you, how I could channel them.” he sighs.  
  
“And then you fuckin’, you hurt yourself Jongdae. You hurt yourself bad and I didn’t know what I was meant to do except pick you up and take you to the ward. You kept screaming so bad even when I did get you there. The relief I felt when Healer Park poured that potion down your throat...dude that was, indescribable.” Chanyeol whispers, he goes to open his mouth, continue on with the spiel, but somehow words don’t seem to work with the bundle of feelings that flooded over him after he woke up, head cushioned against a passed out Jongdae’s leg.  
  
It feels like the entire thing makes sense without him  _saying_  what happened after that, the emotions that had bubbled away while he’d coordinated their Qudditch practices or while he’d flicked his notes across the various blackboards they’d use during their lessons. Something in Jongdae’s eyes tells him that he knows, that he  _gets_  it, and quite frankly, that’s one of the best things to happen to Chanyeol in a while.  
  
“Wow, Chanyeol, that got mighty heavy. Didn’t realise it took me breaking more than twenty bones for you to realise you liked me. Might have done it sooner if I’d known.” Chanyeol’s face must have gone a certain shade of pallid because Jongdae’s bursting out into laughter and insisting, “I’d never do that for any boy, even if he was cuter than you.” Which is a mild comfort, and Chanyeol lets himself drift off with the sound of Jongdae’s laughter.  
  
The tinkling bells melt away the snow that rests under their laurels and heats Chanyeol’s soul from inside out. “You know I’m really too far gone on you, Kim Jongdae.” he says, point blank, like it’s not laying all his cards out on the table, readying himself for sabotage.  
  
Jongdae gets up, dusting some of the snow from the back of his legs and the front, almost the same way he’d brushed it from Chanyeol’s knees. “You act like that’s a bad thing, big boy.” he smiles it more than he says it, stretching out a hand to help Chanyeol up. Which, arguably, it is a bad thing, but the moment their hands meet, Chanyeol and his seventeen year old brain decide; fuck it.  
  
Did you really go to high school if you weren’t too far gone on a cute boy at least once? “No. It really isn’t.” he whispers, pulling Jongdae close by the shoulders. He presses a kiss to Jongdae’s temple, just for good measure he tells himself.


End file.
